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Alright?!
I stood there frozen, half-stunned, watching as Erik broke free of his paralysis, blurring with sudden purpose around the stable. The doors were barred and barricaded, while any windows that had been left open were swiftly locked from the inside. The torches he and the soldier had brought were extinguished in a half-filled water bucket, sputtering to death with an undignified hiss.
It was still possible to see by moonlight, but just barely. My eyes adjusted slowly as the fiery golds cast off the distant fire, dimmed into the shadowy blues and violets of night.
“What does that mean?” I finally asked, unable to draw a full breath.
He was tearing down the plank, now—wrenching it out of the ground with a look of disgust and snapping the point across his knee. He tossed both pieces into the corner, where the pile of kindling for the nightly fire usually lay. The rope, he coiled into his pocket.
I watched every moment, searching for clues.
“Alright, as in...we’ll leave the stable behind us and vow never to speak of it again?” I asked tentatively, staring as he crossed back and forth. “Or alright, as in...you’re going to hand me over to the guards. Because in that case...” I twisted my fingers helplessly, speaking more to myself at that point than anyone else. “I should probably start to run.”
He looked up at that, pale braids framing the sides of his face. His expression caught me off guard, it wasn’t what I’d expected. Sudden, and strained, and something else I couldn’t tell.
We locked eyes a suspended moment, then he softened.
“Alright, Liv.”
Thank the gods.
Without another word, I knelt down beside him, crouching like a pair of bandits in the silver hay. It wasn’t until we were both there, I realized what he was doing. My stomach lurched to see the soldier so close. A tiny spider had started crawling across the length of his hair.
“Take his feet,” Erik commanded softly.
Together, we lifted the man between us. Staying below the line of windows, as we carried him out of the back stall and into the entryway. It was an awkward journey, filled with muted curses and lurching stumbles. At one point, I made the mistake of looking down, and almost threw up.
But we made it to the door, and Erik motioned for me to drop him. I obeyed immediately, retreating to the other side of the little space, as he knelt once more at the man’s head.
“What are you going to do?” I asked shakily.
He glanced at me again, just for the briefest of moments, before he reached down without looking and wrapped both arms around the man’s head. There was a sudden, jerking motion, and his neck snapped. I stared in horror, watching as it dropped back to the damp hay.
Erik toppled a chair, tossed a bridle on the ground. Then he pushed to his feet to survey his work. His eyes swept back and forth before he nodded to himself, looking grimly satisfied.
“It will look like he fell,” he answered quietly, “tripping in haste. The horses won’t be brought back for hours, and it will be a groom that finds him. It will look like he broke his neck.”
I stared back in silence, realizing the great gift he’d given me. It seemed impossible there could be words big enough to express my gratitude, but one way or another, there wasn’t any time.
He finished the scene quickly, and strode back to my side.
“We must get to the river,” he muttered, ducking us both out of sight as a group of frantic-looking people rushed by. The fire was contained, but seemed impossible to extinguish. The flames out the window had to have been over a hundred feet high. “They will send hounds once they realize what’s happened in the tower. We need to have gone through the water by then.”
I nodded quickly, or perhaps I was merely trembling. I was doing my best to keep my mind on the moment, and not focus too clearly on words like hounds. It seemed the king would go hunting after all. He would simply be hunting for larger game.
My eyes lifted to Erik, and I debated again telling him to leave. Or perhaps asking, the man seemed just as stubborn as I was myself. But something in his eyes made the question catch on my tongue. Hadn’t he answered it already? Like he knew what I was thinking, the handsome bannerman paused his ceaseless momentum, drawing in a silent breath and reaching deliberately for my hand.
“I’m not leaving you,” he said simply.
Our gaze met in the silver light.
No, you’re not.
From that point on, things got strangely simple. No longer did I feel we were two people, joined together yet heading in opposite directions, we had united in a common cause. Our fingers wove together as we darted away from the main entrance, aiming for the smaller door the grooms sometimes took to the side. The one used for wilder horses that opened into the pasture.
It was a risky gamble either way. The main gate led towards the courtyard square, and it seemed impossible that we wouldn’t be spotted. If a body was to be found there later, we couldn’t risk a single person seeing us slip away. And yet, the pasture would leave us completely exposed. It was the same place I’d seen him that first day, soothing the spirit of an unbroken stallion. Nothing but a smooth patch of grass, stretching all the way to the distant trees.
Almost all the way, there’s still the fence to consider.
“If only they hadn’t already freed the horses,” I breathed, clinging to his hand. There was a raw clanging in the background, the ringing of the village bell. The farmers would be coming in from the countryside, rolling barrels up the path. “We could have used them to help us escape.”
He came to a stop at the post and checked quickly out the window, glancing over his shoulder as he eased the lock open on the door.
“They would help us gain distance,” he admitted, “which would have been nice, but horses are too easy to track through the forest. You shoe them here, and it leaves deeper prints—”
He stopped cold, staring at something in front of us. I nearly ran into the side of him before looking myself. No sooner had we slipped out the door, half-choking on the cloud of smoke that was wafting over the village, we found ourselves face to face with a familiar silhouette.
Henny.
The boy didn’t usually work as a groom; he earned his coin serving in the Great Hall, same as me. But he hadn’t returned since the incident with the lord’s son in the alleyway, and aside from him thanking me the night after the arena, I hadn’t seen him since.
I was surprised how quickly I recognized him now. The lanky frame, almost awkwardly proportioned, the tumbles of crimson hair that fell in a curly mop across his face.
He was frozen with a hand still half-raised to the door, inside was a rusted key.
“You escaped,” he whispered, almost as if to confirm it. His eyes were red from the smoke of the fire, and there was a rising tension in his face. “I thought you were in the tower...” His voice trailed into silence, as another piece clicked into place. “You set fire to the brothel?”
Erik made a movement in my periphery, but said nothing. I shook my head slowly, never breaking the boy’s gaze. “I set fire to nothing, merely avoided the same fate myself.”
Trina.
The boy knew who she was, he had to. The settlement was large enough to lose oneself for a moment in the crowd, but we’d all grown up seeing the same faces. The owner of the brothel? Yes, he knew who the woman was. He’d probably seen us together many times. Now, she was missing.
Strangely enough, there was no risk in telling him. My aunt was long gone, and knew there would soon be people on her trail. The implication of witchcraft was already enough.
The only risk lay before me now.
There was another slight movement, and I almost felt, rather than saw, Erik’s hand drift towards the hilt of his blade. It was funny, the way great lords and bannermen thought they could do that casually, like the rest of us wouldn’t notice. It was the first place Henny and my eyes both went.
He took an instant step back, out of reach from the weapon.
“Wait,” I whispered, placing a hand on Erik’s wrist.
In hindsight, I didn’t know what I thought was going to happen. I’d done the boy a favor, but that was nothing compared to my sentence. Every second Erik didn’t strike him was another for him to raise his voice and shout. There were enough people still within distance that we would be swarmed immediately. The boy would be lauded, probably given a reward of coin.
And yet...?
The two of us locked eyes, standing there for a hanging moment. It felt like the ground was tipping out from beneath me, but his face was strangely calm. Almost determined.
His lips parted and for a split second, and I was convinced I’d made a terrible mistake.
“It’s a shame, about the horses.” He said each word slowly, deliberately. The settlement was coming to pieces behind him, but the boy never broke my gaze. “But we shoe them here,” he added unexpectedly, “they would be easy to track.”
There was a great lessening in my chest, like someone had deflated a pressure I didn’t know had been building. An almost dizzying relief swept forward to take its place.
“Thank you,” I whispered, eyes shining with gratitude.
A part of me still couldn’t believe it. Witchcraft ran much deeper than favors. A person was forever tainted by association. It wasn’t unlikely they’d be killed. As if the boy guessed what I was thinking, the corner of his mouth twitched into a little smile.
“You remind me of my grandmother. She was a lot like you.”
Without stopping to think what I was doing, I darted suddenly forward, circling my arms around his neck. Thank you, I whispered again, but he was already moving. Erik was already pulling me back. We had circled behind the stables and were sprinting low across the pasture by the time I looked back. I could no longer see him, that red hair had been lost in the crowd.
* * *
When Erik had told me in the tower that part of our journey was contingent upon us scrambling over the settlement fence, there was a part of me that wished to preemptively surrender. I had grown up beside that fence, I knew it well. Every knot in every post. I knew I couldn’t climb it.
But Erik seemed confident.
“Just stay close to me,” he panted as we ran across the pasture, “I will help you.” He grabbed me suddenly and we swung around a fence post, lying quiet and still until a pair of distant torches rushed past. They faded into silence, and our eyes met. “It is not so very high as it looks.”
I shot him a look he’d never see.
“And what if we fall?” I pressed for the hundredth time, scrambling after him as we continued darting across the field. We’d been blessed by the gods, it was blanketed in shadow. The moment we’d started running, the moon had drifted behind the clouds. “We will break, and it will be my fault. Or worse, I’ll scream and draw them right to us.”
“We will not fall. He came to a stop at the base of the fence, back pressed against the rough grain of the wood. His eyes scanned quickly over the deserted row of buildings that ran the edge of the settlement before returning to mine. “You will not scream.”
I couldn’t tell if the last was an order.
The two of us gazed up at the towering planks that circled the village, their silhouettes reaching tall as the eye could see. It was no ordinary wall of protection, and we’d put our finest boat-makers to the task. The edges were smooth and bad for climbing, knitted together in such a way as to prevent a man’s grip. I’d always thought it was an extravagance. Didn’t seem that way now.
“It actually seems much worse from his angle,” Erik breathed, tilting his head towards the very top. “I’m not sure if we can climb it after all.”
I blinked in the silence, then gave him a look.
“A little joke, to lighten the tension...”
There’s a chance we may not get along.
With a caution that often gave way in bursts of haste, the two of us cast a silent prayer and began the slow process of easing our bodies upwards; a process that would have been near impossible in the daytime, but turned out to be a thousand times worse by night.
More than once, I wondered if we should have gone down to the harbor. The gates would have soldiers—those would never abandon their posts, not even on pain of death. But the harbor might have been clear. We could have slipped into the water; paddled down the coast.
Of course, I couldn’t swim. And there was a decent chance we’d freeze.
Still, such things made an argument in my mind.
Twice, my feet slipped, and Erik had to reach over and grab me. Three times. Each one, I worried would be my last. My stomach would swoop, my eyes would squeeze shut, and my hands would reach blindly for the boards in front of me. They would rarely find them.
But there would always be a hand on my back.
When we were only halfway to the summit, I’d thought someone might be coming. A ball of light bobbed in my periphery, and the two of us held perfectly still, not daring to draw in a breath. It was only a short while after that, my arms started shaking so badly, I began to lose balance. It was at that point, Erik came up beside me, placing us near hand over hand.
“You are almost at the top,” he said quietly, arms steady. I sucked a quick breath, feeling the warmth of his body against mine. “And to fall from such height would mean near certain death.”
I nodded quickly, then froze. My eyes darted to the side. “Was that another attempt at humor?”
He was smiling. “It certainly was.”
Avoid all such attempts in the future.
“You see that grip in front of you?” he asked softly, his breath near my ear. “You can reach it if you stretch. You will wobble only for a moment, I will be here.”
I cast a quick glance to the side, unable to understand how he wasn’t panicked, and saw those blue eyes steady on mine. I reached where he said, and paled when I lost balance.
But he was there, just as he’d said.
“Take a breath,” he murmured, lifting me higher. I was terrified to put any weight on him, but the man had iron in his hands. “Now reach...there, you have done.”
I clung to the sharpened points of the palisade, chancing a glance behind me at the dizzying drop. The settlement felt worlds away, a point of blazing color against the slow lightening of the sky, and for the first time since we’d ran down the stairs of the tower, I was smiling.
Perhaps I was growing hysterical, or perhaps it was merely relief.
I can see the forest from here. I can see the trees.
He appeared beside me a moment later, swinging his leg over the side. The points on the wood made things difficult; they’d been designed to avert thieves. But he moved with a simple grace, alighting easily on the ledge. From such a narrow perch, the height must have been dizzying. Indeed, I saw his face go still for a fraction of a second, before his eyes locked steady on mine.
“You are almost there, reach for my hand.”
I did so without hesitation, and he swung me up as easily as if I was a doll. For the briefest of moments, we stared at each other. The forest stretching ahead, the blazing village at our backs.
This might be where we part ways.
For the briefest of moments, I saw him consider. It would have been impossible not to consider, not if someone had even the slightest appreciation for what was coming next. A journey into the wild was almost as certain a death, as if I’d stayed behind to attend my execution. There was no shortage of things that could kill you in the forest, as if the elements weren’t already enough. My people didn’t travel lightly. There were provisions to consider, there were maps. Months were spent in preparation for such a journey. Between the two of us, we had a single cloak and some blades.
The boy had been offered a throne. I offered this instead.
Yet his eyes were shining when they met mine.
“From here, we must only jump.”
A moment passed between us.
Then I looked suddenly at the ground. “Wait, what—”
He was over the side before I could stop him, swinging his body lightly and grabbing my wrist at the same time. I realized what was happening at the last minute and clung to the palisade for all I was worth, but his strength far outmatched mine. It was all I could do not to scream aloud as we tumbled blindly into the abyss, scraping along the side of the fence to slow our momentum.
He landed first, light as a cat, and glanced up in time to open his arms. I cratered into them a moment later, cursing like a sailor and praying for death.
Am I alive?
I pried open first one eye, then another.
He was smiling, inches away from my face. “I told you, nothing to it.”
I could have slapped him.
The world righted as he set me gently on my feet, and together, the two of us stared into the burgeoning forest. From the window of the tower, it had looked a mass of tangled shadow. But those thickets were retreating under the light of the coming dawn. I could make out individual trees by now, see the spaces between them—get a sense of direction. A summer wind swept down from the mountains and seemed to swell beneath us, stirring a whisper through the leaves.
Can we really do this?
For the first time all night, I stopped thinking about whatever might get me through the next moment, and started thinking about whatever might be coming after that. A part of me latched onto the idea like a drowning man gasping for air. Another part was almost equally terrified, because I didn’t have an answer to that question. Or rather, I didn’t like what that answer happened to be.
“We’ll need coin,” I blurted, without planning to speak.
He glanced down at me in surprise, having paused beside me at the sight of the forest. A kind of blankness came over him, like he didn’t understand the words. “...for the journey?”
A different day, I might have smiled.
Son of a bannerman.
“Yes, for the journey,” I answered in a hush, reaching instinctively for his wrist and pulling him swiftly towards the cover of the trees. It felt like we’d been running for ages, and sleep had been elusive. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had anything to eat. “We won’t get far on the road without silver. It’s summer now, but in the next few months, the ground will freeze. We’ll need supplies, clothes. Things to warm us, besides a fire.”
It felt mad to waste time talking about logistics. Even as I said the words, a part of me wanted to sprint desperately right into the trees. But I’d known too many people who’d wandered into these woods and never come back. We didn’t even have markers for them anymore. They bore the stone of a shared, empty grave.
Erik’s eyes swept towards the settlement, landing on a specific part. I could imagine what he was thinking, the room he was picturing—having seen it once already though the eyes of a hawk.
No doubt there was lots of silver in the villa where he was staying. So much silver, a few coins wouldn’t even be missed. I pictured a leather pouch, tossed carelessly beside his bed. There would be weapons alongside it, surely. A hatchet and flint. He hadn’t been able to bring anything with him. The man had come for a midnight prison break. He’d dressed light.
“I could go back...” he said tentatively, almost to himself. “The important thing was to get you out of the settlement. There isn’t a reason yet anyone would be looking for me. There’s a chance no one’s even noticed I’ve gone—”
I grabbed his sleeve, struck with a sudden idea.
Why take silver, when you can have gold?
* * *
“Liv, this is a bad idea.”
Erik hurried after me through the forest, winding his way through the twisting aspen and pointed spruce. Once I’d made up my mind, my feet had found a single direction. I’d lived in these woods all my life. For the first time, he was the one trying to keep up with me.
“No, it isn’t,” I said for the hundredth time, quickening my pace as the sun lifted slowly over the trees. The sounds of the settlement had been muted, so deep within the tree line, but the bells were still clanging. It was only a matter of time before the smoke settled and the doors of the tower were thrown open, at which point, everyone would discover the escape of their resident witch. “It’s closer to the fence than I’d like, but it isn’t a bad idea. It’s the only one we’ve got.”
Erik had argued when I’d told him about the gold Trina brought back from the brothel. It was a small fortune to people not born to such things, and half of it was mine. I’d remembered her turn of phrase the night we’d parted, when she’d promised to leave a stash of coins for me. ‘Perhaps I’ll leave it somewhere in your honor. Bury it, in a smuggler’s cave.’ She’d said it with a smile. But a smile was never just a smile with Trina. I knew the cave she was talking about. We were heading there now.
“It doesn’t even make sense,” he said again, tripping after me through the brambles. They snagged on his cloak, and he shook it free in frustration. “A special place the two of you found beside the river? A pouchful of gold, but she left it outside? How do you even know—”
“I know Trina,” I interrupted, moving steadily forward, “it will be there.”
A hand appeared on my shoulder, drawing me back.
“But how can you be sure,” he reasoned, staring down at me. The lost hours of rest were catching up, and there was nothing in him that wasn’t doubt. Too many times our plan had gone awry already, and he didn’t like the idea of venturing closer to the soldier’s camp. “Liv, they will be coming after us soon, if they haven’t saddled their horses already. The longer we stay—”
“But the horses are gone,” I reminded him, marching through the tall grass, “evacuated for the fire into the eastern hills. If they’ve been left to graze, it will take time to retrieve them. And even then, horses don’t move well in the forest, away from the smoothness of a trail.”
A ringing silence followed the words, and I turned to face him.
“We can get the gold and be gone before anyone starts looking,” I promised. “The cave is nowhere near the cottage, and we won’t go anywhere near the house.”
He stared back at me, unconvinced.
“We should keep moving,” he urged quietly, “away from the settlement. There is a body in the stable, and any moment the king’s guards—”
“They will not find us here.”
“You don’t know that,” he insisted, reaching for my hand as I started to step away. “These people are trained soldiers, hunting witches is a favorite pastime. To risk that for some gold—”
“And what happens tomorrow?” I demanded, turning once again. “How are we supposed to survive the autumn, much less the winter, if we’re still traveling when it comes? Do you think the gods will be kind to us? Do you think when the temperature drops, we won’t freeze? We need the gold to buy things that will keep us alive, Erik. If we mean to do this, it’s not enough to just escape.”
We stared a level moment, then I turned around and continued walking. My ears were pricked, and a few seconds later, I heard him start to follow, muttering under his breath.
“To escape is plenty...”
I held back a grin, feeling almost giddy.
It might have been the lack of sleep, or just the harrowing thrill of having avoided certain death, but some part of me was floating. The deeper we ventured into the forest, the easier it was to imagine that we might be allowed to stay. We had made it out of the tower. Wasn’t that the hardest part? We had made it past the fence. I’d spent the last few days planning to die at sunrise. Now it appeared, I would live to see another day.
I told myself these were the reasons. I told myself it was the gold that kept me marching into the woods. But the truth was somewhat more complicated, unlikely as it was.
I was hoping desperately to see Trina.
It was a longshot, I knew this. But the woman was a walking conundrum, spinning miracles out of her hat. I imagined her sitting on a rock, as we burst into the clearing. She would turn around with a grin, sucking on the end of her ridiculous pipe. Well, it took you long enough, she’d say. Then all would be well. These were the thoughts I didn’t say to Erik.
Just a little bit farther...
The place we were going was a little cropping of rocks Trina had found one summer along the side of the river. Not a cave in the slightest, but she’d been delighted by her discovery, and I’d prompted named it in order to make her smile. We’d spent the rest of the warm summer months hiding little things for each other to find, making a joke out of it—something we laughed about over breakfast. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind it would be just as Erik said.
We would go to the cave, and discover a pouchful of gold.
I could only hope Trina would be sitting alongside.
“It’s just around the next thicket,” I promised, feeling Erik lag reluctantly behind me with every step. “You’re worried now, but I promise, you’ll be thanking me the first time it freezes and we’re stranded in the forest. We don’t even have a second cloak—”
He clamped a hand over my mouth, pulling me quickly out of sight.
At first, I didn’t know why it had happened. I was simply startled by the speed. My hand came up, landing ineffectually on top of his, but there was no moving from the place he’d stashed me, tucked inescapably against his chest.
At first, I thought it was a continuation of his argument. Viking men weren’t in the habit of asking advice from the women. He’d said repeatedly, it was a bad idea.
I struggled reflexively against his hand.
But he hadn’t been arguing, and that hand wasn’t moving. He’d simply seen something I had not. There, just a stone’s throw away from where we stood, was a company of bannermen.
They stood around a tiny outcropping of rocks alongside the dinner.
The one in the middle, I recognized. He was holding a pouch of gold in his hand.
Steffen.
“—and you found no tracks?” he was saying.
My eyes widened in terror, as I cringed backwards into Erik, dreadfully certain I knew exactly who they were talking about. They hadn’t yet checked the tower, or the woods would already be swarming. He was talking about Trina. He’d asked about her that night in my cell.
The soldier he was speaking with shook his head. “Not a trace, but we’re still looking. There’s a chance she left by ship—”
“She’s on foot, and we won’t find her.” Steffen turned away from him, rubbing the leather fold of the pouch between his fingers. There was a faraway look on his face, but it wasn’t in any way displeased. If anything, he looked a little excited. “But that’s a matter for another day. It’s the girl who was the greatest concern. We should return to the settlement, and...” He trailed off halfway through his sentence, casting an irritated look through the trees. “They’ve been ringing those damn bells all morning. Haven’t they gotten the fire under control by now?”
No sooner had he spoken than another pair of guards burst through the trees. They were red-faced and panting, wearing the same colors as the rest. They inclined their head in a quick show of respect, before the one in the front started talking.
“My lord, the witch has escaped.”
My heart froze in my chest.
Gods help me.
He looked up slowly, staring with expression at the man’s face. I could feel Erik’s muscles tense behind me. The world started spinning. He started gradually easing us away.
“She escaped,” Steffen repeated without inflection. “How?”
The man looked nervous to tell him. “The door was opened with a key.”
There was moment when nothing happened, it seemed the entire world was hanging by a fragile string.
Then a look passed across his face. Something close to a smile. “In that case, we should return. They will need help finding her.”
There was a general murmur of agreement as his men packed up the supplies they’d brought with them—re-sheathing axes and daggers, and heading off through the trees. The great bannerman headed off after them, giving the pouch of gold a little toss, before slipping it into his cloak.
I stared until they vanished amidst the aspen, watching the silver hem whip at his heels.
We need to run.
There was no reason to say it to Erik; for once, we were on exactly the same page. The second the soldiers were out of sight, he grabbed my hand and the two of us started running towards the river. If the men were forming a search party, the hounds would be not far behind.
Side by side, we ripped our way through the forest. Our hair whipping around us, branches slicing at our skin. We kept up the pace until we reached the familiar banks of the river; the same place I’d been lingering just a few days before, waiting for the festival to begin.
For a moment I paused, stunned by an overwhelming sense of unreality.
Then I realized what ‘crossing the river’ would actually mean.
“I can’t,” I blurted without thinking, staring at the sunlit waves. “I can’t go into the river.”
Never in sixteen years had I set more than a foot in that water. Despite of Trina’s persistent attempts to coax me. Despite the irritated chidings of my own mind. The second the water touched my skin, it was as though some part of my brain stopped working, able to hold onto a single thing.
This was the place my mother had died. Those same peaceful waters had carried her away.
Erik cast a look over his shoulder, already untying his cloak. “What do you mean?”
“I just...” My heart was pounding, almost too loud for me to hear. Or perhaps it was those sparkling waves, thundering in my ears. “I’ve never...” My eyes flashed up, finding his. “My mother drowned,” I finally concluded. “I’ve never been able to get in.”
My mother WAS drowned. There was a difference.
But I didn’t feel the need to say that now.
He stilled for a moment, a crown of rising sunlight settling in his hair. For a moment, I thought he was going to be angry, but he walked back up from the shoreline.
“You told me once that you were with me. That may have been premature.” His eyes sparkled blue, as he offered out his hand. “Allow me to convince you.”
The shadow of a hawk fell from overhead as I considered his offer for the briefest of moments. Then I slipped my fingers into his, and we stepped into the river.
Wherever it might lead...
THE END
